Sam Bird has retained the claim of being the only driver to win in every Formula E season to date after taking his 10th career victory in Saudi Arabia.
The British driver grabbed the victory after multiple on-track incidents caused the race to be red-flagged with just over two minutes remaining. It marked a turn fortunes for the Jaguar driver, who was forced to retire from yesterday’s race after a collision with fellow Brit Alex Lynn.
Pole sitter Robin Frijns finished second, with DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne in third after contact with teammate Antonio Felix da Costa.
Frijns got off to a decent start as second place Sergio Sette Camara locked up into Turn 1, allowing Bird to get past him.
The opening laps saw several dicey overtakes with da Costa squeezing past Sebastien Buemi for eighth and Dragon/Penske’s Nico Muller diving up the inside of Tom Blomqvist for fifth.
Mercedes EQ’s Stoffel Vandoorne pitted early for a 10 second stop-go penalty, due to his powertrain change ahead of the race.
Vergne and da Costa managed to scrape past the NIO 333 car driven by Tom Blomqvist, after he ran wide.
Attack mode strategy proved to be crucial with several drivers getting caught out. Oliver Turvey and Muller both decided to take attack mode one after the other, but Muller was caught out by a charging Vergne and dropped to sixth.
Concerns were rising for Frijns, who was told he was overconsuming his energy. The Envision Virgin driver then took the first of his attack modes, dropping behind Bird.
He was able to pass the Brit once more for the lead, who then went for attack mode as well. However, Bird was overtaken by Camara, who was later dispatched once more by Bird and Vergne.
Further back, it was a strong showing for rookie Nick Cassidy, who moved up to ninth with a move on Blomqvist at Turn 9 as Rene Rast went around the outside of Mitch Evans at Turn 1.
A full course yellow was then deployed as Jake Dennis was forced to stop at the pit entrance. The BMW I Andretti driver stopped with heavy damage after being squeezed into the wall by Pascal Wehrlein – the Porsche driver was awarded a drive-through penalty for the incident.
Racing then got back underway with just over 20 minutes remaining, as the DS Techeetah duo closed the gap to the leading pair as Frijns managed to hold on to the lead.
Da Costa attempted to get past Bird but managed to lose out to his teammate. Both drivers were lucky to avoid a crash into Turn 20, after da Costa tried to squeeze past – he drove into the side of Vergne and narrowly missed being smashed into the wall.
As third and fourth place battled, Bird and Frijns pulled away, with the Jaguar managing to overtake his former teammate in attack mode, a move that proved to be crucial.
With 12 minutes remaining, the Nissan e.Dams of Buemi stopped between Turns 3 and 4, triggering a yellow flag.
Envision Virgin Racing’s Nick Cassidy continued to make progress through the field, dispatching Sette Camara for fifth.
Racing was then soon brought to a halt, with a double incident at the chicane. Maximillian Guenther locked up in the BMW, hitting into the side of the NIO 333 of Tom Blomqvist.
Moments later, the Mahindra of Alex Lynn overturned and collided with barriers, with Jaguar of Evans also going off. A full course yellow was deployed, but with two minutes remaining on the clock, the race was red-flagged.
Mahindra have reported that Lynn is conscious and is at the hospital for checks.
As a result, Bird took home his 10th victory in Formula E and his first with his new team Jaguar Racing. Frijns finished in second, with Vergne in third. Vergne’s podium is still under investigation, as he was unable to take his second attack mode due to the red flag.
Da Costa finished in fourth, ahead of Cassidy in a stunning display for his second race in the series.
Sette Camara ended up in sixth, ahead of Muller, Turvey and Nissan e.Dams’ Oliver Rowland.
Audi’s Rene Rast took the final points place in 10th, with Alexander Sims in 11th and the second Audi of Lucas di Grassi in 12th.
Blomqvist was 13th, ahead of yesterday’s race winner Nyck de Vries and Norman Nato, who were both unable to qualify due to the investigation into Edoardo Mortara’s crash in FP3.
Wehrlein finished in 14th, in front of Porsche teammate Andre Lotterer and Mercedes EQ’s Stoffel Vandoorne, the last of the finishers.
Buemi, Gunther, Evans, Lynn and Dennis were not classified, with Mortara not starting the race.
De Vries continues to lead the Drivers’ Championship on 29 points, ahead of Bird on 25 points and Frijns in third on 22 points.
After their victory and podium yesterday, Jaguar Racing lead the Teams’ standings on 40 points, ahead of Mercedes-EQ and Envision Virgin Racing.
Formula E now has a month-long wait until Round 3 in Rome on April 10.
[motorsport_result id=’56946′]
